Best Questions to Ask When Touring a Memory Care Community

Choosing a memory care community for your loved one is difficult. You’re trying to make the best choice possible in the midst of holding onto grief, worry, and other complex emotions. You want to find a community that will keep your loved one safe, but you also want to be sure your loved one will feel comfortable and loved in their new home.

Knowing the right questions to ask during your research and touring process can help you make a confident decision. Questions to ask when touring a memory care facility should include inquiring about personalized care, staff training and coverage, safety interventions, daily routines, family communication, costs, and forecasting future needs.

Keeping a list of uniform questions to ask each community you visit can help you compare answers and find the community that best supports your loved one while meeting their personal preferences.

What to Do Before Touring a Memory Care Community

Touring potential memory care communities gives you the opportunity to see what life inside the building is like. You’ll be able to observe residents and staff interacting, see what rooms are like, and even catch a glimpse of meals or activities. However, you don’t want to tour too many communities. Instead, you can narrow down your list of potential communities by eliminating ones that do not meet certain requirements and non-negotiables.

For example, you can eliminate memory care communities that are outside of your family’s desired location or that cost too much for your loved one’s finances to sustain.  You may also be able to narrow your list by determining whether your loved one’s needs can be supported in an assisted living community or whether specialized memory care would be more appropriate.

Once you have a list of about 3-5 potential communities, you can begin scheduling tours.

Questions to Ask About Memory Care and Staff

During your tour, a community representative will point out certain highlights, features, and amenities of the community. A list of questions can help ensure you get the information you need to make a choice.

How Is Each Resident’s Care Plan Personalized and Updated?

Best practices of memory care are rooted in personalized interventions and approaches. Caregivers and staff members meet each resident where they are at that moment, knowing that not every intervention will work for every resident, every time. A personalized care plan, which is like a road map to customized care for each resident, is the foundation of this practice.

Ask:

• Who writes the initial care plan? How do they get to know the senior before writing it?
• How often is a care plan reviewed? What is done if the interventions aren’t working?
• Are family members invited to be a part of the care plan process, including regular reviews?
• How do staff members use each resident’s life story to create a care plan and personalized approaches?

What Dementia Training and Staffing Coverage Does the Team Have?

Working in a memory care community means working with seniors who are living with cognitive decline and who face different challenges each day. Staff members who are well-trained on dementia care best practices and the progression of the disease are able to provide better care.

Ask:

• What type of training do caregivers have before starting work at the community?
• What type of background checks are performed on caregivers and other staff members?
• What type of continuing education is offered to staff members, and how often?
• What is caregiver turnover like? How do you actively work on caregiver retention?
• What types of staff members are in the community during the day? Night? Weekend? Who, besides caregivers, are around to serve residents?
• I know that staff ratios can vary by time of day. Can you explain how you staff the community with caregivers?

How Does the Team Respond to Distress, Wandering, or Changing Behaviors?

Dementia comes with a variety of challenging behaviors, including pacing, wandering, rummaging, or restlessness. While there are no one-size-fits-all interventions to eliminate these behaviors, memory care staff can implement environmental changes and redirection techniques that can provide comfort and safety.

Ask:

• Can you share examples of how staff members address wandering or other challenging behaviors associated with dementia?
• What interventions do you use to prevent sundowning and the challenges that come with it?
• How do you work with a resident to identify potential causes or triggers for behaviors?
• What type of training do your caregivers get about behaviors and interventions? Communication techniques?
• What type of clinicians are on staff to help out with reviewing medications, interventions, and other factors that might improve quality of life?
• How do you inform family members about what types of behaviors the staff observes? How do you follow-up after a hard day or specific incident?

Safety and Health Questions to Ask

Memory care communities are designed to enhance safety, health, and wellness. This can look differently in a specialized community like memory care.

How Does the Community Support Safety Without Unnecessarily Limiting Independence?

Memory care residents typically thrive with safety supports, but independence is always important too.

Ask:

• Do residents have safe access to outdoor areas? Can you explain your approach to this?
• How do family members access the locked memory care area?
• When are visiting hours? Are there any visitor policies we should be aware of?
• Can I take my loved one out for dinner or to my home for a special celebration?
• Can I host a special celebration here if I don’t feel comfortable taking my loved one out?
• Can you tell me about your fall assessment program and how you do your best to eliminate fall risks?

How Are Medications, Health Changes, Emergencies, and Outside Providers Handled?

Emergencies, health changes, and medication management can become more complicated when dementia is in the picture.

Ask:

• How are medications distributed? How do you ensure safe medication practices?
• Who reviews medications with the pharmacist and/or physician? How often is this done?
• What doctors, specialists, and other physicians already have regular visits here? If my loved one sees another doctor or specialist, can they come here too or do we need to schedule transportation for their appointments?
• What happens if my loved one needs to go to the hospital in an emergency? How am I notified? How do they get there?
• How often are nurses on-site?

Daily Life and Family Involvement Questions

Memory care communities should feel like home, and that means there are regular daily rhythms that provide consistency. Family involvement is also an important part of weekly life.

How Are Routines, Activities, and Social Engagement Personalized?

Each resident in a memory care community is unique and has their own daily preferences and routines. A good memory care community finds a way to meet the needs of everyone who lives there.

Ask:

• What does a typical weekday look like here? What are some consistent daily activities or routines that happen all the time (or nearly all the time)?
• How do weekends look different?
• What types of activities are offered each day? What about evenings and weekends?
• What if my loved one isn’t joining group events? 
• My loved one has always been a loner. How will you find ways to connect with them anyway?

How Does Dining Support Preferences, Nutrition, and Changing Needs?

Dining three times daily in a social dining room setting is a tentpole in the day’s routine. However, dementia can make nutrition challenging at times.

Ask:

• Could I see a menu and/or observe a meal without causing a distraction to residents?
• What if my loved one doesn’t like the meal that is served? Are there other options?
• My loved one is vegan/kosher/gluten-free/etc. Can you meet those preferences?
• What if my loved one has a medically prescribed diet? Can you meet those needs?
• How often are snacks available?
• How do you encourage hydration throughout the day?
• My loved one has dentures but rarely uses them. How can you ensure they are eating well and getting the right nutrition?
• How are families notified of any dining changes or changes to interventions at meal times?
• Can I come eat with my loved one?

How Are Families Updated and Involved?

Family members and staff members should work as a team, working together to ensure the senior receives personalized care based on their history and preferences.

Ask:

• How do you communicate with family members? 
• Who can I contact if I have a question or a worry?
• Do you have any support groups or family education sessions?

Questions to Ask About Costs and Long-Term Fit

Dementia is a progressive disease, which means that care and support needs will only increase as time goes on. You want to be sure your loved one’s finances can support memory care for as long as possible. Fortunately, there are many options for financing and planning for memory care as well as offsetting the costs.

What Is Included in the Monthly Price, and What Costs Extra?

It can be helpful to understand what is covered when paying for memory care (and what isn’t). Ask questions to reduce surprises as time goes by and needs change.

Ask:

• How much is the monthly fee? What is covered under this price?
• What additional costs could occur?
• Are meals covered in this price? Medication management?
• What happens if my loved one goes into the hospital? Are there any refunds during hospital stays?

How Will Care and Pricing Change as Needs Progress?

Some communities do change more each month for residents who require more hands-on support.

Ask:

• Are there charges for higher levels of care? How does that work?
• How often are residents assessed for additional support?
• Do we get a heads up if my loved one’s level of care is increasing? How long do we have to plan for that price increase?
• Are there times when you have to ask a resident to leave to another community because their care needs are too high? Can you tell me more about that?

What Are the Admission, Discharge, and Grievance Policies?

Make sure you are aware of how move-in and move-out policies can affect you.

Ask:

• What are the admission criteria my loved one needs to meet?
• What are move-out criteria?
• Can you tell me more about resident rights?
• How and when should I contact an Ombudsman?
• What do I do if I have a concern? 

What to Observe During a Memory Care Tour

During your tour, you’ll be doing more than asking questions. In fact, you can learn a lot about a community simply by observing life at the community while you are walking the halls with a representative.

Look for:

• If the staff and residents seem to have a good relationship. Are they laughing together? Do the staff members greet residents by name?
• How do meals look? What is the dining room atmosphere like?
• Is the community clean and home-like?
• Does the environment feel calm and welcoming?
• Are activities happening? Do residents seem engaged?

How to Compare Memory Care Communities After a Tour

During your tours of potential communities, try to ask the same questions and make similar observations. This makes comparing communities even easier. It is also helpful to keep a notebook with you so that you can jot down your observations as quickly as possible. This way, you aren’t trying to remember each community later, as they tend to blend into one another if you wait too long.

Remember that your loved one might thrive in a community that your neighbor might not. Keep your loved one’s preferences and abilities at the forefront as you make your choice.

Finally, you can always schedule follow-up phone calls or tours. You may want to contact a community 2-4 times before making a final decision. Any community that rushes you to decide is a concern.

Tour a Legend Memory Care Community

Choosing a memory care community can feel overwhelming. However, when you focus on narrowing down your decision based on questions and observations regarding personalized care, staff training, safety and health support, daily life, and costs, you can be more confident about your final choice.

We invite you to explore more about memory care at Legend Senior Living. We’d love to answer any questions you might have and help you schedule a visit at a residence near you.